


which remains

by thethrillof



Category: Secret of Kells (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-05
Updated: 2013-11-05
Packaged: 2017-12-31 13:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1032212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thethrillof/pseuds/thethrillof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brendan finally shows Aisling the Book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	which remains

Brendan expected her to have changed, somehow. Grown older physically, mentally, something. But the years passed and he forgot that she was different, that she wasn't merely a human who was unusual, but not human at all.

He holds the Book in his hands, but her eyes aren't on that; they're on him, and they're filled with so many emotions he can't seperate them all.

"You came back," she says. Her tone is oddly flat.

It occurs to him that he's nervous. Which is ridiculous, he's several times taller than her now as well as being her best friend--but he isn't sure about that anymore.

He tucks the Book away in the satchel. He doesn't need it quite yet.

"I came back," he says in return.

The leaves around them rustle, and it's nearly like the spring they met. Her arms are folded, her brows lowered, and he is pressing his back against the stone in the center of the fairy ring.

He breathes out a deep sigh. "Aisling, I missed y--"

He's cut off by her changing into a white blur and slamming into his chest, forcing him back and knocking his head agaisnt the stone. He sees stars, but he feels her arms clinging to him and her face burying itself in his chest. He grips her in his own arms, settling his chin onto her hair.

She's shaking, and it's a while before she speaks. _"Don't do that again."_

He isn't foolish enough to ask _what_. "I won't. I'm here to stay, this time." And he will, even if the Northmen return. He is home, where everything to him is important. While he knows he can survive in the Outside, he'd rather not. Besides the forest, of course.

After a few minutes, he slides down to the ground, Aisling's light form resting on his lap. She's so powerful, but he realizes, really realizes, that she's still a child. He doesn't entirely let her go as he tugs the Book out again.

"Would you like to see the most beautiful book in the whole world?" he says, voice light. He senses rather than sees her nod.

He feels strange as he positions her carefully, so they can both see the Pages. It takes a bit of thought before he realizes--he feels like a father, ready to tell his daughter a bedtime story. Thinking of his best friend as a daughter is the strangest thing that's crossed his mind in a long time, and he doesn't know exactly what to say as she begins turning the pages.

The silence beats against his ears. She doesn't speak at all, merely looking at every page for a while before flipping to the next.

He clears his throat. "Do you like it?"

"Don't know yet," is her less than heartening response.

He leans his head against the cool rock behind him, watching the clouds drift by above. There's a knot in his throat, and he can't speak around it. Even if he could, he doesn't know what he would say.

It's a minute before he realizes she's stopped.

He cranes his head, and he's struck by the sight of his own creation, the Chi-Rho Page.

"Do you like it?" he asks again, more weakly.

She traces the flowers that he spent ages carefully making perfect. He had imagined mist swirling by them while he created it, though even with his art talents he couldn't think of a way to properly illustrate that.

Her fingers trace the patterns he held only within his head, and his breath catches.

"I can feel my forest, inside this," she says. Her tone is still more reserved than he remembers, but he knows what that means.

Brendan smiles, and he holds her hand. "I'm glad."


End file.
